Courage & Creepy Closets

It was Friday. Jeremy had invited his friend Justin for a sleepover, and Jeremy’s sister Emily invited her cousin Jessie to spend the night. They all sat around the table chattering about their plans. The boys wanted to play video games while the girls tried to decide what to do.

“We could play dolls,” Emily suggested.

“Or play dress up! You have that great bin of dresses and costumes in your closet!” said Jessie excitedly.

Emily was suddenly quiet.

“What’s wrong, Emily? You look nervous,” Jessie noted.

“Uh, umm,” Emily stammered. “It’s just that I don’t want to open my closet.”

“Why?”

“Well, you see . . .” Emily noticed her brother listening. She tugged on Jessie’s sleeve. “Let’s go to my room, Jessie.”

The girls went upstairs to Emily’s room.

“What’s the matter with you, Emily?” Jessie asked after Emily shut the bedroom door.

“Jessie, I’m scared of mm-mm—”

Jessie tried to guess what Emily was going to say. “Mm–mustard? Mushrooms? Milk? Your mom?”

“What? No!” Emily clamped her hand over Jessie’s mouth to keep her from making any more silly guesses. “I’m scared of monsters!” she blurted.

“Monsters?!” Jessie shouted.

“Shhh!” Emily hissed. “I don’t want Jeremy to hear.”

Jessie giggled.

Emily glared at her older cousin. “Don’t laugh at me. I’m really afraid that there are monsters in my closet. I haven’t even opened it to get any of my dresses out. That’s why I’ve been wearing pants all week!”

“Okay. So, why do you think there are monsters in your closet?” Jessie asked in her most mom-like voice.

“Because I heard noises like clunks and bumps,” Emily explained.

“Really?” Jessie bravely walked to the closet. She reached toward the doorknob.

“Nooo!” Emily screamed.

Jessie was so startled that she made a flying leap and landed on the bed headfirst.

“Emily, why’d you scream?”

“Because I told you, I haven’t opened the closet for a week! There are monsters in there; I’m sure of it.”

Jessie gave up. “Well, let’s just take our dolls and have a tea party downstairs then.”

“Okay,” Emily agreed.

As the girls tromped down the stairs laden with dolls and tea cups, they could hear the boys laughing in the other room.

“Sounds like they’re having fun with their video games,” said Jessie. “Let’s get our tea party going.”

But the boys weren’t playing video games. They were laughing about what they’d heard Emily say. Jeremy and Justin had been listening outside of Emily’s room.

“Monsters!” laughed Jeremy. “You know who the monster really is?”

“No,” said Justin.

“It’s me!”

“What?! I don’t get it,” said Justin.

“Emily has to go to bed an hour earlier than I do,” Jeremy explained. “So one night while she was brushing her teeth, I snuck into her closet.”

“And you made noises?” asked Justin.

“Yeah,” Jeremy let out an evil chuckle. “Now that Jessie’s here, you can help me scare both of them.”

“I don’t know,” said Justin.

“It’ll be fun; you’ll see.”

A few hours later, Emily and Jessie put on their pajamas and went into the bathroom to brush their teeth. While they were gone, Jeremy and Justin crept into Emily’s room and quietly sneaked into the closet.

It wasn’t very big inside. Emily’s dresses swooshed around Justin’s head. When he tried to sit down, a shoe jabbed him in the side.

“Ow!” he cried.

“Shhh!” Jeremy poked Justin. “Be quiet; they’re coming.”

Justin could hear the girls talking as they came back to the room and crawled into bed.

Jeremy saw the light under the door disappear as Emily switched off her lamp.

Jeremy leaned over and whispered in Justin’s ear, “Are you ready to be a monster?”

Justin nodded, accidently bumping his head on the wall.

Emily bolted straight up in bed. “What was that?!”

Jessie turned over. “I didn’t hear anything.”

Inside the closet, the boys were feeling squished. Jeremy accidently stepped on a squeaky, talking doll.

“Are you my mommy?” it squealed.

Jeremy was so surprised, he fell down and smooshed Justin against the wall. Squeak—clunk—bump!

“Whaa!” Jessie sat up.

The noises were definitely coming from the closet. Emily and Jessie dove under the blankets.

“You know what I think we should do?” whispered Jessie. “We should yell for help.”

Emily shook her head. “Mom and Dad are watching a movie. I don’t think they’ll hear us.”

“We could pray for help,” Jessie suggested.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Emily agreed.

The girls asked God to give them courage and help them get rid of the monster. Then they crawled out from under the covers. Suddenly another noise came from inside the creepy closet—clunk, clank.

“Maybe if we open it, the monster will run away,” said Emily.

Jessie tiptoed toward the closet and cautiously reached for the doorknob then whisked the door open—swoosh!

The boys tumbled out and landed on the floor, glad to be out in the open again.

The girls gasped.

“So you’re the monsters in the creepy closet!” Jessie announced.

“You know what we do with monsters?” asked Emily. “This!”

Justin and Jeremy peered up at the girls just as two huge, fluffy pillows came toward them—womp!

“Hey! No fair.”

The boys jumped up and grabbed more pillows. Soon all four kids were whopping each other and laughing so hard, they couldn’t breathe.

“See?” Jeremy said to Justin. “I told you we’d have fun!”

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